Researchers will often already have a latest possible date when they start the chronolocation process. In most cases there will be a few extra steps and it will only be possible to figure out the earliest possible date or latest possible date that an image was taken, rather than the precise date and time. Unfortunately, chronolocation isn’t always that simple. Calling up or emailing Habitat to ask them whether this image was indeed captured on this date can provide further cast iron assurances. It appears that a couple of key details and a quick Google search was all that was required to find a probable correct date for the image. We can further confirm the date of April 3 by looking for the Mets’ 2017 season schedule, indeed the first game of the 2017 season was on April 3. Text visible on a page of Habitat’s website details the “Home is the Key” campaign.Īnother website visible in the same Google search results also reported on the topic and shared a picture of the same wooden frame that is visible in the source image. This picture taken in front of CitiField, a baseball stadium in New York that serves as the home of the New York Mets, offers an example. Sometimes clues will be so obvious that it’s possible to immediately figure out the rough date of the source image from one detail alone.

Seasonal indicators such as weather, foliage etc.Įssentially, any aspect of a source image could be of use, provided that it has changed over time.Storefronts (similar to buildings but might be even more useful as this changes more frequently).If these options aren’t available, looking for other clues in a “source” image that can be cross-referenced with contextual “reference” images or other related information can also help narrow down a date range.īellingcat has used such chronolocation techniques to determine when undated photos in a museum archive were taken and to find out when a Czech politician’s son (who claimed to be kidnapped) had been photographed.Ĭlues to look for in a source image may include: For a start, it has to be daytime and there must be a shadow cast somewhere in the video or image of interest. Observing the length of shadows visible in an image or clip and employing tools like Suncalc offers one useful method.īut this process of “ chronolocation” – determining when a picture was taken rather than just where (which is known as geolocation) – isn’t always feasible. Quick tip: There are also websites for reverse image searching that you can use if you're looking for other non-Google methods.How can open source investigators determine when a photograph or video was taken? It uses popular search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yandex, and Tiny, and it's available completely free for Android devices only. Search By Image is a free reverse image search app that helps you find images or photos that are similar. The app is available on both Google Play and App Store, and it's completely free. However, keep in mind that you might not always get a result. All you have to do is take a picture of it, and the app will use its advanced image recognition software to identify it for you. If you've ever seen an object in the real world and wondered what it is, CamFind can help.

This will give you access to advanced search engines like Yandex.

However, you can upgrade to the pro version through in-app purchases for $3.99. It's available for both Android and iOS devices for free. The app doesn't have its own search engine, so it uses others (Google is the default) to do the reverse image search instead. If you're looking for something beyond the Google app and Google Chrome for your reverse image search needs, there are a couple of other apps you try.Īs long as you have the image file or its URL, you can use Reversee to do a reverse image search.

Google street image search